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I don't want to say its overengineered because at the end of the day, I have nothing more than a cable connection. My *current* lab at home for testing on the fly consists of: Cisco: 2650XM running CME, Cisco 2511, Cisco GB Switchprobe, nGenius 9912, Juniper: 2x Netscreen 204's, 2x SSG20's, SSG5, 5XT, SA700

Machine with too many VM's to list. I had a CCIE/CCNP lab once upon a time but got bored really quickly with CCIE security studies. Because I deal with so much different technology, it was difficult for me to focus SOLELY on Cisco especially when I began pushing for Stonegate and Juniper products for distinct clients. I use Foundry and Juniper switches heavily at work not to mention the usual pukage of Juniper SSG's, SA's, etc.

And other stuff I got tired of playing with a long time ago. I did the home lab theme years back but it was difficult because I never had quiet @ home. 2) My light bill was off the meter 3) Become noisy 4) Became an eyesore 5) Lack of steady focus

My initial goal on networking began years ago when I studied for the CCIE (circa 2000) completely bypassing any CCNA/CCNP studies (you don't need any for the CCIE). When I began studying, I did so at my own leisure and pace at the protocol/RFC studying level. In parallel to this I was already doing security engineering a-la systems administration (Emerald, Big Brother, Dragon IDS (hola Ron Gula), Network Flight Recorder (hola Marcus), Satan, Cops, etc.)

I keep things around lurking when I get bored but mainly to create labs to test on. I at times create little "businesses" inside of my network to understand architecture, design, packet flow, packet analysis etc., network analysis has always fascinated me and I've had the good fortune of learning from time to time by reading the works of Laura Chappell and bugging her from time to time. She's been one of my main "go to the experts" when it comes to understand network analysis. I just throw my own spins into the equation to wing it in a method that's understandable to me. (Most people get into a "WTF!" state when I break things down as I tend to bastardize things).

I don't want to say its overengineered because at the end of the day, I have nothing more than a cable connection. My *current* lab at home for testing on the fly consists of: Cisco: 2650XM running CME, Cisco 2511, Cisco GB Switchprobe, nGenius 9912, Juniper: 2x Netscreen 204's, 2x SSG20's, SSG5, 5XT, SA700

Machine with too many VM's to list. I had a CCIE/CCNP lab once upon a time but got bored really quickly with CCIE security studies. Because I deal with so much different technology, it was difficult for me to focus SOLELY on Cisco especially when I began pushing for Stonegate and Juniper products for distinct clients. I use Foundry and Juniper switches heavily at work not to mention the usual pukage of Juniper SSG's, SA's, etc.

And other stuff I got tired of playing with a long time ago. I did the home lab theme years back but it was difficult because I never had quiet @ home. 2) My light bill was off the meter 3) Become noisy 4) Became an eyesore 5) Lack of steady focus

My initial goal on networking began years ago when I studied for the CCIE (circa 2000) completely bypassing any CCNA/CCNP studies (you don't need any for the CCIE). When I began studying, I did so at my own leisure and pace at the protocol/RFC studying level. In parallel to this I was already doing security engineering a-la systems administration (Emerald, Big Brother, Dragon IDS (hola Ron Gula), Network Flight Recorder (hola Marcus), Satan, Cops, etc.)

I keep things around lurking when I get bored but mainly to create labs to test on. I at times create little "businesses" inside of my network to understand architecture, design, packet flow, packet analysis etc., network analysis has always fascinated me and I've had the good fortune of learning from time to time by reading the works of Laura Chappell and bugging her from time to time. She's been one of my main "go to the experts" when it comes to understand network analysis. I just throw my own spins into the equation to wing it in a method that's understandable to me. (Most people get into a "WTF!" state when I break things down as I tend to bastardize things).

Dark_Knight wrote:Sil,I think he said 'home' network That looks like a setup for a SMB

Most of it was in my house and is mine I brought them to work as my wife was ready to create her own spin on a TV show: "It's me or the dog gear" Believe it or not (dynamik can chime in here from techexams experience) my setup was not all too uncommon when studying at the CCIE level in fact, my equipment pales to some of the things I've seen.

In the mid to late 90's I had the typical: 3x Ultra5's, 1Ultra60, SGI Indy and O2, an Alpha Workstation a Tadpole, 2 Thinkpads and about 3 i386's (yea!!!!) Late 90's early 2k it turned to routers and switches and firewalls (back then IP650's running CP howned), I had my Anzen Flight Jacket + NFR, Dragon, Deception Toolkit... The good old daze (yes I know its days)...

Nowadays... I can't think of one firewall I don't touch in the course of a good month: Stonegate (I have my SGFA and SGFE certs), Pix, ASA, Fortinet, SSG, Sonicwall*cough*garbage*, Nokia's, and the list goes on and on... Switches, same... Ciscos, Junipers (I have some EX's at work), Foundry, Adtran, the list goes on and on... Pentesting commercial crap: Canvas, Core, Appscan, Klocwork, the list goes on and on...

RFID Well I have a Mercury M3 but my coworker doesn't let me turn it on as it spits out too much crap that's not good for the body and he wants to eventually have a kid or two... VoIP: SBC's (soon getting Acme's), Asterisk, PBXnSIP, Avaya, Nortel, Mitel this list goes on and on... All in the course of a managed service provider day

sil wrote:Believe it or not (dynamik can chime in here from techexams experience) my setup was not all too uncommon when studying at the CCIE level in fact, my equipment pales to some of the things I've seen.

Indeed. The typical R&S lab is pretty impressive and security and voice labs are just ridiculous.

I do most of my work on the systems side. I have 16GB of RAM, a quad-core, and two cheap RAID-10 arrays in my main system. I can easily get 30 or so VMs going and mimic and decent business network. Other than that, I just have my cable modem attached to an ASA5505 and a WRT54G for basic wireless and a WRT54GL with custom firmware for experimentation.

I also have some Cisco 26XXs, 2950s, and 3550s that I play around with. CCNA: Security was enough Cisco-centric studies for me, so I haven't touched them in awhile. I'd definitely go farther if I worked with Cisco equipment on a regular basis, but it's difficult to keep up with when you work with it infrequently.

sil wrote:Believe it or not (dynamik can chime in here from techexams experience) my setup was not all too uncommon when studying at the CCIE level in fact, my equipment pales to some of the things I've seen.

Indeed. The typical R&S lab is pretty impressive and security and voice labs are just ridiculous.

Every time I see a lab like that, I want to cry because it's not mine. I keep saying someday but some day never comes

Saw the spot on ciscos. I work with them almost daily, and my cisco lab is on the sad side. Maybe if I get more money I'll upgrade. As for your Desktop, I want 2 of those. One to build a hack lab, 1 to have as my day to day machine.

sil wrote:Believe it or not (dynamik can chime in here from techexams experience) my setup was not all too uncommon when studying at the CCIE level in fact, my equipment pales to some of the things I've seen.

Indeed. The typical R&S lab is pretty impressive and security and voice labs are just ridiculous.

I do most of my work on the systems side. I have 16GB of RAM, a quad-core, and two cheap RAID-10 arrays in my main system. I can easily get 30 or so VMs going and mimic and decent business network. Other than that, I just have my cable modem attached to an ASA5505 and a WRT54G for basic wireless and a WRT54GL with custom firmware for experimentation.

I also have some Cisco 26XXs, 2950s, and 3550s that I play around with. CCNA: Security was enough Cisco-centric studies for me, so I haven't touched them in awhile. I'd definitely go farther if I worked with Cisco equipment on a regular basis, but it's difficult to keep up with when you work with it infrequently.

Has any one used the MIMIC Cisco labs? I'm just wondering if that might not be a suitable alternative.

Edit: I'm not sure, but I'm thinking MIMIC wouldn't work in terms of a being a pentesting lab. I guess that is why I'm asking.

Last edited by mallaigh on Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

not to mention 2 HP servers.just to run a simple broadband connection.

lets just say my power bill is unnecessarily high

I do this because my home network is also my lab. as a network engineer I need to be able to configure large networks. this lab environment is perfect to practice my pen testing skills. I am constantly testing the security of my network. endless fun.